A Moment of Grace

God Loves to Dance

Posted on July 5, 2017     2 Comments

Who do you believe is the happiest person in the world?  Is it the person with the greatest amount of money? Or the one wielding the greatest amount of worldly power? Not so.  The happiest person is not a human being.  The happiest person in the universe is actually God!

Most people don’t associate happiness with God.  Instead, they think of Him as a somber, serious, sin-conscious being, who is almost always at least a little angry and disappointed with these fallen creatures He brought into being thousands of years ago.  They portray a God who is perpetually in a bad mood.  How untrue!

The truth is just the opposite. God is, in fact, “infinitely happy because He is infinitely perfect.”  That’s right, infinitely happy because infinitely holy! His happiness flows from His perfections; the result of being completely holy.  God is not sad and God is not mad.

Instead, God is: Read More

 Generational Blessings

Posted on June 29, 2017     8 Comments

We hear much today about generational curses. Some scrupulous and some well-meaning ministers are telling believers they are the victims of curses being passed down to them due to the sins of their ancestors.  And in order to ever experience freedom from the curse, they need to receive special prayers of “deliverance,” often requiring repentance for the sins of their fathers, renunciation, fasting, binding and casting out of demons.  But is this biblical and is this necessary for the believer?

In John 9, Jesus ministered to a man who had been blind from birth and his disciples brought up the subject of generational curses.

 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (John 9:1-2).

The disciples believed the man was possibly suffering for the sins of his parents due to a generational curse.  But Jesus rejected the notion altogether and gave a completely different reason for the man’s blindness.

“Jesus answered,  ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”  ‭‭(John‬ ‭9:1-3‬ ‭NASB‬‬)

When given the opportunity to talk about generational curses, Jesus did not.  Why? I suspect it was because either He did not believe in them at all, or He did not believe in the same way the disciples did at that time and many do today.  

The truth is God is not pronouncing curses upon families that are passed down from one generation to the next as punishment for sin.  And if, in fact, there is such a thing as a “generational curse” being passed down from one generation to the next, then it is the curse of Adam, which is passed down to every member of the Adam race. That curse, produced by Adam’s sin, is called spiritual death–being separated from God and existing without God’s life inside. Spiritual death, and all its negative consequences, is the source of all forms of defeat in those whose origins are in Adam.

Thankfully, Jesus came to bring the Adam race to an end and  to begin a new race of people.  To Nicodemus, a member of the Adam race, He said, “You must be born again.”  To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17).  

The believer, therefore, is no longer “in Adam.”  He is now “in Christ.”  His  “deliverance” from the “generational curse” received from Adam is accomplished already.  It took place when Jesus died and rose again for him.  So, the believer in Christ can now give  “thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:12-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“Delivered from the power of darkness” and qualified “to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints?”  What is this? Nothing less than a generational blessing! Just like the curse upon Adam flowed unto all those born to Adam, so the blessing upon Jesus flows to all of us born to Jesus.   The curse in Adam has been replaced with the blessing in Jesus.

Child of God, stop believing you are cursed.  The day of your salvation was the day of your deliverance. The only deliverance you may still need is from the blindness and unbelief that prevents you from resting in the sufficiency of Jesus and His finished work.  Ask God to help you see all you have in Christ.  And instead of believing that a generational curse is operating against your progress, start claiming and enjoying the “generational blessing” that flows to you from Jesus.  Amen. 

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Move Mountain, Move!

Posted on June 21, 2017     3 Comments

The supernatural miracles of God require a supernatural faith. And this is what the faith of God is–a supernatural faith that originates in God, belongs to God, and only God can give.

“Have the faith of God,” Jesus says, literally, in Mark 11:22.  Not your own faith, God’s faith. The God kind.

Now, if I say to you, “Have some water,”  I am saying to you that water is present, available and accessible to you right now. Is that not so?  So, when Jesus says to me, “Have the faith of God,” He is telling me, its available and accessible to me right now and I can have it and use it if I choose, to conquer a problem, obtain a breakthrough, or win a victory.  Jesus is saying, if you have a mountain that needs to be removed, you can exercise the faith God gives you, the God-kind of faith, to make the mountain move.

The mountain can be anything that is standing in the way of God’s best for you, that is preventing you from experiencing God’s best. It can be sickness, poverty, marriage difficulties, anything in the way of God’s will.  Nothing is impossble to you. Nothing, because you have the faith of God in you.

Now, how do you release your God-given faith to receive miracles and answers to prayer?  How do you unleash the power of God for miracles?  The same way God unleashed His power to accomplish His purposes for creation and the same way Jesus released God’s power to work miracles on earth.  It involves words.

God believes in the power of His words. He declares:  “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”  (‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

And in Job we find: “You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.” (‭‭Job‬ ‭22:28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Then Paul writes:  “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” (‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:13‬ ‭KJV‬‬)

And Jesus Himself declares:

“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”  (‭‭Mark‬ ‭11:22-24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Take all these passages together and it should become clear that God wants you to operate like He does.  First, perceive His Will; second, believe His Word; third, speak to your “mountain,” believing that the very thing you are decreeing will be done for you.

You say, “I can’t do that, believe that I will have what I say. I am not God.”  You certainly are not, but you don’t have to be God. You just need to be a child of God, to have His Spirit in you, to have God backing you to be able to do this.

Start believing because you are partaking of God’s nature in Christ, and are righteous in His sight, your words have great weight. That because we are a kingdom of priests, your words are highly anointed. That because those who have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign as kings in life, your words command great authority. (See Rom. 5:17, 1 Peter 2:9)

Child of God, if your world is without form and void and darkness is hovering over you, you can do something about it. But you have to open your mouth and start decreeing what you know to be God’s will for your life.  Start commanding light and life to manifest and darkness to depart. Start decreeing the Word of God.  That is what God did. That is what Jesus told us to do. Nothing happened until God spoke. And nothing will happen until you speak.

“Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”  (‭Zechariah‬ ‭4:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

So, what are you waiting for? Believe and speak.  And keep believing, and keep speaking.  This mountain shall be removed, “not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”  (Zech. 4:6)

Remember, it is not enough to just have faith in your heart.  You need to speak in order to unleash the faith of God in you to make miracles happen.

The Mother of All Virtues

Posted on June 14, 2017     1 Comment

If pride is the mother of sin, then humility is the mother of all virtues.  Scripture tells us over and over again to clothe ourselves in humility.  And gives us some powerful reasons to do so.

Here is one such passage:

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  (‭‭I Peter‬ ‭5:5-11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Notice several reasons Peter gives us for choosing to humble ourselves:

1. God resists the proud, but “gives grace to the humble.”  God offers unmerited favor, undeserved blessings, well-timed help, and moment-by-moment assistance to the humble. Not to the proud.  Can you use more grace on a daily basis?

2. God will “exalt you”  in due season, if you humble yourself.   He does not tell you just how God will exalt you, but he guarantees you God will.  Wow!

3. God will “care” for you.  God will literally take personal interest in everything regarding the humble, and actively attend to you and watch over you with “deepest affection.” Knowing this, you can cast “all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him.” (AMP). What a promise!

4. God will protect you from the devil who is looking for someone to “devour.” The proud are an easy prey for the enemy.  But God defends the humble, as He cares for you and gives you grace in every situation and under all circumstances.  Thank God!

5.  The God of all grace will be with the humble during times of suffering and “after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”  How comforting, how reassuring, how empowering!

Why does God make such magnificent promises to the humble?  According to Peter, it is so that through these “exceedingly great and precious promises…you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”  (2 Peter 1:4) These Scriptural rewards provide the Holy Spirit with what He needs to motivate and empower us to obey.

Child of God, do you want to partake of the divine nature? Then, make the decision to clothe yourself and walk in the humility God provides for you in Christ.  Ask Him to break the power of pride in your life and to change your attitude.  Start to pore over and pray over these precious promises daily.  By so doing, you will be cooperating with the Holy Spirit and He, who is faithful, will give more grace as He produces His humility in you.

Be blessed, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

Let Me Hear From You

Posted on May 19, 2017     32 Comments

Hello friends,

Some of you may have noticed I have not been publishing new blogs lately.  I have taken a break to assess how to best use my time and how many people are actually reading and finding the weekly blogs helpful and valuable.  

Since I stopped publishing new ones, I have only had one person to inquire.  This suggests to me not many people miss the blogs and there is no need to continue producing them.

If I am wrong about this, and you really want me to continue my weekly publication of A Moment of Grace, I need to hear from you. Please drop me a line and let me know  your thoughts and feelings.

I am willing to resume writing, but only if I know it’s worth my time and effort because many people are actually reading and being helped by them.

Thank you.

Bishop Darlingston Johnson

The Past Tense of Forgiveness

Posted on March 16, 2017     1 Comment

What is missing in the way most churches proclaim the Gospel?  What is lacking in the understanding of a great number of believers regarding redemption? It is that forgiveness is not future tense; it is past tense! It is not partial; it is total. It is not progressive; it is  Read More